obama said this. >> in the month since 20 precious children and six brave adults were violently taken from us, more than 900 of our fellow americans have reportedly died at the end of a gun. >> reporter: this statement is wrong. the number is much higher. according to the cdc 900 people are murdered on average every month in the u.s. by firearms. but 2,700 are killed by a gun every single month. but here is the caveat. the vast majority of those deaths, about 63%, come from suicide or accidental death. now to widen the scope of this discussion, violent crime over the last 20 years nationally has fallen by a massive amount, 50%. technically america is much safer now statistically than it's been in decades. but controlling the crime rate is not the underlying goal of the president norv congress. it's preventing more newtowns from ever happening again and there is some evidence to suggest a weapons assault ban could achieve that end. i am sam brock and that is today's reality check. >> now you can watch the full video on our website, nbcbayarea.com. coverage of nooth town shooting traged